Long before the first golfer ever crested the sandy rise above Brewster, long before Gamble Sands became a name whispered by travelers chasing wide fairways and endless horizons, this land was farmland—swaying corn that rustled in the afternoon wind. Those who worked these slopes knew the watchman who stood among the rows: a tall, lean figure keeping his silent vigil as the Columbia River shimmered in the distance.

Scarecrows have long symbolized autumn and harvest, but their origins stretch back thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians and indigenous peoples used human-like figures—or even real people—to scare birds away from crops. Greek and Roman farmers placed statues of the fertility god Priapus in fields, a tradition with roots across Europe and Asia.

The familiar modern scarecrow traces to medieval Europe, where straw-filled figures replaced children who were once tasked with protecting crops. Their spooky associations come from Dark Ages folklore, including the bogeyman and Ireland’s Jack-O-Lantern, when farmers carved gourd heads and lit candles inside them to ward off evil.

Today, scarecrows are mostly decorative. Wildlife quickly adapts unless scarecrows are moved regularly, and modern pest-control methods often work better—though some can harm beneficial species. While no longer essential, scarecrows remain a creative, symbolic reminder of humanity’s long effort to live in balance with nature.

Today, the fields have changed, but the watcher remains.

The Scarecrow Course—David McLay Kidd’s newest creation, emerges from 300 acres of rumpled, rolling ground where the old cornfields once stretched. The Gebbers family, whose orchards still flank the property, designed the course’s new emblem themselves: a slender figure holding a flagstick, part guardian, part ghost, part guide. Their Scarecrow is friendly, but not fully knowable human in shape, mythic in spirit.

Walk the site and you’ll understand. The land folds and tilts like a saddle twisted by ancient hands. Ridges lift you toward Columbia River’s unparalleled views. Swales and valleys plunge and roll, hiding greens and revealing them only at the right angle, and from the correct positioning of a golf shot. Kidd and design team took these natural waves of sand and soil and breathed golf into them—golf that contrasts with, yet speaks to, the original Gamble Sands Course.  The addition of the Scarecrow may have been long awaited, but wow…is it worth the wait!